FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT CORPORATION COUNSEL - PAGE 2

With an eye toward saving more than $130,000, the City of Naperville will establish a legal department rather than pay outside law firms more than $332,000 a year to represent the city. By a 4-3 vote, the city council has directed the city staff to begin searching for an in-house attorney and to phase out Ancel, Glink, Diamond, Murphy & Cope, the downtown Chicago firm that has represented the city since 1968. The transition could be complete by the year's end. "This is the biggest progressive step we`ve made in Naperville in five years," said councilman Donald Wehrli, who made the motion to establish a legal department.

NEW YORK, March 11 (Reuters) - New York City said on Monday it would appeal a state judge's ruling that overturned a planned ban on large sugary drinks one day before it had been scheduled to take effect. "We plan to appeal the decision as soon as possible, and we are confident the Board of Health's decision will ultimately be upheld," Michael Cardozo, lawyer with the city's Corporation Counsel, said in a statement. (Editing by Barbara Goldberg; Editing by Daniel Trotta)

Thomas M. Monahan, 74, a former corporation counsel for Joliet who also practiced civil and criminal law in that city and in Chicago, died of pancreatic cancer Saturday, March 30, in his Sun City, Ariz., home. Born on Chicago's South Side, Mr. Monahan graduated from St. Rita High School and enlisted in the Army, where he served in the Pacific theater during World War II. Following his discharge, he returned to Chicago and dug ditches for a year with Commonwealth Edison Co., an experience that pushed him toward higher education.

Illinois' highest court made it clear Thursday that when push comes to shove, City Hall's top corruption buster answers to the very mayor he's supposed to keep watch over. The state Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling that Inspector General Joseph Ferguson cannot independently go to court to enforce a subpoena for documents from the mayor's administration. Instead, he must ask the corporation counsel, the city's top lawyer who reports directly to the mayor, to enforce those subpoenas.

Lincoln Towing Service, which gained infamy for its strong-arm tactics, is itself getting shoved around by the city, an attorney for the North Side towing firm said Wednesday. Although the firm has tried to comply with licensing requirements, the attorney said, the city has now added a zoning variance to the equation. The city's Department of Consumer Services ordered Lincoln Towing to close its office and tow yard at 4882 N. Clark St. Tuesday for failing to renew its operating license, which expired Dec. 31. The business remained closed Wednesday despite efforts to appease the city.

Jan 10 (Reuters) - Whether or not the state of Michigan takes over Detroit's finances could depend on recent action by the city council to approve contracts tied to city's restructuring and oust the corporation's counsel. Governor Rick Snyder said on Thursday that the Detroit Review Team he appointed last month to assess the city's finances would "analyze whether the actions ... were sufficient to actually address the city's short-term cash crisis. " The Republican governor also said he wanted the team to consider the city's options for addressing long-term liabilities.

An attorney who was fired by the city in 1988 has been rehired by the Daley administration to oversee a program to eradicate lead paint from Chicago apartment buildings. The attorney, Sherwin Bender, a member of the 50th Ward Democratic Organization, has come under fire from some community groups who say he has tried to stall their lead paint initiatives rather than help the program. Bender, 48, was hired last November to provide legal counsel for the Department of Health on the city's initiatives involving lead paint, a critical health risk to children.

Chicago attorney Kelly Welsh will be nominated by President Barack Obama as general counsel at the Department of Commerce, led by another Chicagoan, Penny Pritzker, the White House announced late Friday. Welsh is executive vice president and general counsel for the Northern Trust Corp., a post he has held since 2000. He previously served in the same role at Ameritech Corp. And from 1989 to 1993, he was corporation counsel for the City of Chicago under Mayor Richard M. Daley. "Kelly is an absolute star," Pritzker wrote in an e-mail. "We will be lucky to have him at the Department of Commerce as he brings a wealth of experience …” Welsh, 61, is married to Ellen Alberding, president of the Joyce Foundation.

Judson H. Miner, an attorney who led the prolonged battle that led to a court-ordered remap of Chicago wards and the upcoming special aldermanic elections, was named the city's corporation counsel Friday by Mayor Harold Washington. The appointment was the second in two days of well-known young leaders from the critical North Side lakefront wards where Washington's support reportedly is slipping. The mayoral primary election is less than a year away. On Thursday, Washington turned to Ronald Gidwitz, the 40-year-old Republican committeeman in the Near North Side 43d Ward and president of Helene Curtis Industries Inc., to be chairman of the city's Economic Development Commission.